When you're lying in the deck chair enjoying a sunny day in front of the stylishly renovated Universal building on the banks of the Spree River, you can listen to the quiet, softly jazzy music emanating from the loudspeakers in the background while you watch the occasional city rail trains passing over the beautiful and historic Oberbaum Bridge or ponder the old, weathered logo of the "Königstädtische Dampf-Wasch-Anstalt" (Koenigsstadt Steam Laundry) on the building opposite.

This is a place in which the past and present have merged to harbor the future.

Its image is shaped by the Spree River, visionary new construction projects, meticulously restored Wilhelmine estates and historic industrial complexes, most of which are considered landmarks worthy of preservation.